It's My Birthday And I'll Fly If I Want To...

Today is September 8th, the 251st day of the year, leaving just 114 days remaining until the end of the year. To the best of my knowledge, it isn't widely acknowledged as a date of particular significance, although I did find a few noteworthy points: to some, it is an important day because it is the birth of the Virgin Mary (mother of Jesus). In reviewing Wikipedia, I saw that comedic actors Peter Sellers and Sid Cesar were both born on the 8th of September. The only reason I reflect on this date is to celebrate my birthday. I don't typically care much for birthday parties or the hoop-la, but I'll never pass up a delicious slice of chocolate birthday cake on this date!

Now as you may know, the past few days I've been in Rhode Island visiting family for the long holiday weekend. Last night we took the opportunity to celebrate my birthday while we were all together. My two nieces were thrilled to have an opportunity to have some cake and sing.

Today however, I am flying back to California to return to work. So yes, I'm flying on my birthday and will be back in the office working before the day is out. So while I'd prefer to hang out with my nieces for another day, duty calls and I'm flying back home to Cali. I take back some great memories of a fun weekend together, satisfaction from a long overdue family visit. So, to paraphrase a great oldies song: "It's my birthday and I'll fly if I want to, fly if I want to, fly if I have to. You would fly too if you had to do it too" (work, that is). Hope you have a great day, and thanks for stopping by.

-Rick Rockhill

Happy Labor Day To You....

My visit to Rhode Island has been filled with fun family time. I've been enjoying my two little nieces- having fun outside, telling stories, and playing any number of board games that strike their fancy. Speaking of fancy, apparently a story called Fancy Nancy is all the rage with little girls these days (who knew?). Like most girls, they love dress-up, shoes, accessories and all things pink and purple. They sure are fun to spend time with.  

Yesterday I took my grandmother to visit two of her sisters, neither of whom she has seen in several years. It was great to see the look on their faces as they saw each other again. It was also a treat for me to see my aunts and catch up on all the family gossip. It's tough living 3,000 miles away from family, we were all so close when I was growing up. I sure miss everyone. Today I'll be spending Labor Day with my parents, brother, sister-in-law and the nieces just relaxing outside and savoring our time together. Whatever you do today, I hope you enjoy the day as well.

-Rick Rockhill

Rick's Roadshow: Providence Waterfires

Welcome back to another scintillating edition of Rick's Roadshow: Providence Waterfires. If you have never heard of, or been to the Providence Waterfires, it is an amazing sight to see. The Providence Waterfires are truly an artform- a type of sculpture created by world reknowned artist Barnaby Evans. It features over 100 wood-burning bonfires situated along three rivers in downtown Providence.

The bonfires have a fragrant scent and flicker firelight on the surface of the waters that illuminate the arched bridges. Gondolas and torch-lit vessels travel gently down the river, set against enchanting music that appeals to and engages all the senses of passersby. It evokes wonderful emotions from those who stroll the cobblestone paths of Waterplace Park. Run from private funds and donations, the Waterfires are truly magnificent and distriguish Providence as a jewel of the Northeast United States. (The first two photos are from the Waterfires website, but I took the ones below. I hope you enjoy these photos:

above: the volunteers pass the fire from torch to torch along the Providence River, starting after dusk. Note: Blogger is giving me a hard time formatting the photos and text, so the next few photos won't have any explanation, I'm sorry. I hate this new udate to the blogger software...Grrrrr!

above: looking west, toward the Providence Plance Mall in the distance. You can see the basin of the water place, with the waterfires glowing in the early hour of dusk.

above: three "original" buildings of the Providence financial building skyline.

above: looking due west, along the Providence River. As we stopped here, there was an opera singer giving an improptu performance to the music along the rivers. It was so moving, and gave credence to the fact that Providence is a modern renaissance city.

above: A view East, toward the Citizens Bank building.

above: the waterfires have individual braziers, filled with chopped wood, and are light by special teams on gondolas, coordinated to music that is piped along Water Place Park. Thanks for stopping by Rick's Roadshow: Providence Waterfires.

-Rick Rockhill

Rick's Roadshow: Chicago- Final Day

Rick's Roadshow isn't especially exciting today, but I thought I'd write a quick post to let you know how much I've enjoyed being back in Chicago. The majority of my trip was spent on the south side of Chicago attending business meetings, but last night I went downtown for dinner at the famous Shaw's Crab House. This is the only photo I took all evening- it is of course the Chicago Theatre marquis, taken from within my taxi cab on State Street. Anyway back to Shaw's. It's the sort of place that people go for all kinds of fresh shellfish, oysters and sushi. It has a fun, comfortable atmosphere and offers delicious food. Since I am allergic to shell fish, I grazed on some calimari and had a nice salad. For my entree I went with a blue cheese encrusted filet, which was cooked to perfection. We had a dessert sampler, of which I had exactly one fork-full since I was so full. It was a fun evening, but I didn't stay out late as I had an early flight to catch to Providence, where Rick's Roadshow will continue. I'm taking today off work as a "personal day" so my travels will hopefully yield some fun photos to share. Hope you have a great Friday too!

-Rick Rockhill

Rick's Roadshow: Chicago- Fannie May Pilgrimage

More from Rick's Roadshow: Chicago. The weather in Chicago today was quite perfect! The sun was shining and it was so pleasant to be out and about. I had booked myself in meetings virtually all day, but I had a short window in the early morning to make my faithful pilgrimage to the local Fannie May Candy Shop. Whenever I am back "home" in Chicago I make a trip to a Fannie May store- it's almost a religious experience for me. Anyway, as it turned out they had a huge sale on, so naturally I stocked up on some essentials, such as Colonial Assortments, Dark Vanilla Buttercreams,  Marshmallow with walnuts drenched in chocolate, some white chocolate for my brother, and some 70% dark chocolate squares for John. The kiddies will get some milk chocolate crayons and gummy fruit slices! Let's just say they will all be glad to see me this weekend! It was worth the trip, and I sure am happy now. Today I'm in meetings all day long, so don't expect much from me!

-Rick Rockhill

Rick's Roadshow: Chicago

Rick's Roadshow continues from Chicago, Illinois. I left Orlando amid heavy downpours mixed with loud thunder and scary lightning bolts crashing everywhere. I seriously wondered if our plane would be able to take off, but the pilot wasn't even phased. I arrived in Chicago quite late, to somewhat chilly temperatures (60's) but compared to the crazyhot humid weather in Orlando, Chicago felt cold to me. In fact once in my hotel room I cranked up the heat! I seriously doubt I'll have much to report from Chicago, as I'm completely tied up in meetings and won't get out at all. But rest assured- if I do, you'll find out right here. Hope you have a great Wednesday, I know I will.

-Rick Rockhill

Rick's Roadshow: Orlando in August, Day 2

Welcome back to Rick's Roadshow: Orlando in August, Day 2. After spending Sunday exploring the Gaylord Palms Resort, Monday brought work obligations that needed tending to. As this is a personal blog, I rarely write about work, so I shall skip over what I did- but suffice to say I worked! I did have a few moments to snap these photos, once again within the Gaylord Palms property. For those of you unfamilar with this resort, they have live, lush tropical gardens inside the biodome of the hotel. Palm trees, tropical foliage, flowers, rocks, ponds, flowing rivers and waterfalls too. But perhaps the most captivating  attraction is "Gator Springs". Yep, you guessed it. Gator as in alligators. And so I present, photos from Gator Springs, direct from the Gaylord Palms in Orlando:

above: The Gator Springs sign post welcomes visitors to the exhibit.

above: As you gaze through the cascading waterfalls, you get a sense of what awaits...

above: a deeper look within the Springs reveals a rock island in the center of the water...it seems like the surface of the rock is moving...

above: at closer examination you see the myriad of baby alligators!

above: I zoomed in a bit. There are turtles lounging among the alligators- who knew anything could get along with an alligator?

above: This one baby alligator swam up to me to say hi...or was it to see if he could get a bite? Either way I wasn't about to find out. I kept my distance and hurried on my way to my next meeting. That was just about the right amount of exposure to Gator Springs that I wanted for a lifetime, thank you very much! Well that's all for today's installment. I'm in Orlando all day today, and then fly out to Chicago late tonight, so Rick's Roadshow continues....

-Rick Rockhill